If you took the time to sit through Apple's two-hour-long WWDC '23 Keynote, then you might have spent a lot of time twiddling your thumbs. There was a bit of excitement when it came to the new Mac hardware that will soon be available, and a lot of time was spent focusing on the improvements coming to the Apple Watch.
Then, Tim Cook took the stage to announce the company's first "One More Thing" since the iPhone X back in 2017. Apple Vision Pro was introduced before various company executives and team members explained how this AR/VR headset "shift the way we look at technology." My colleagues, Michael and Nick, have already done a great job at covering what Vision Pro could mean, but I wanted to take a few steps back.
According to Counterpoint Research, Apple shipped 58 million iPhones in Q1 2023 alone, while accounting for a 21% overall global market share. While Android phones are far more common and popular in most of the world, Apple is nipping at Samsung's heels, so I was interested to see what iOS 17 could bring to the table.
Refinement is okay, to a point
iOS 16 introduced features that were first presented with Android 4.2 Jelly Bean before being removed with Android Lollipop. Apple introduced quite a few headaches with iOS 16, such as the company being forced to release a "Day One" update for iPhone 14 owners who couldn't activate their phones.
If you've paid attention to the iOS release cycle over the years, it shouldn't come as much of a shock that iOS 17 definitely feels more like a "refinement" update. There are some new features such as an autocorrect system that will finally rid you of typing "ducking" instead of what you actually meant.
StandBy is my favorite new change coming to iOS 17, turning my iPhone 14 Pro Max into a better clock for my nightstand. And being able to leave FaceTime video messages is a neat trick, but not one that I really plan to use.
Apple doesn't care about what you want
If you go back and watch the iOS 17 portion of the WWDC '23 Keynote, Apple spent about 18 minutes talking about the upcoming changes. Almost half of that was focused on changes to the Phone, Messages, and FaceTime apps. What was the "defining feature" you might ask? Contact Posters.
Basically, it's a redesigned Contact Card that can be customized to your liking, offering a similar feature to what is found on the Lock Screen. But remember when Google's Dave Burke announced poop emoji and wallpapers that could be generated using AI? And remember how many people took to their social media platform of choice and poked endless fun at how this made the presentation?
If you look around at social media now, there's absolutely zero mention of how boring iOS 17 actually is. There are some useful changes coming, but many of the ones that were actually exciting were just thrown into a blog post on Apple Newsroom.
For example, Apple first introduced widgets to the iPhone with iOS 14, and iOS 17 is finally making those widgets interactive. Sure, it was mentioned in the iPadOS portion of the Keynote, but it wasn't until afterward that we knew interactive widgets were also coming to the iPhone. This is incredibly more useful than the new Contact Poster or the redesigned menu for accessing iMessage apps.
All of this really just leaves me feeling like Apple doesn't actually care about making genuinely useful and long-requested improvements to its most popular platform.
There might be a reason why iOS 17 is boring
When talking to the team about this topic, I had a thought that could explain why iOS 17 is so lackluster. And it's why I mentioned the Apple Vision Pro headset earlier. In order to provide a cohesive experience between the headset and your other Apple devices, the company has to be able to lay a lot of groundwork.
And considering that Apple has been rumored to be working on an AR/VR/MR headset for years, it would help to explain why the lines have been blurred between iOS, iPadOS, and macOS. Perhaps Apple just made a few "low-hanging fruit" improvements just to say that there are new features for the iPhone without making the entire WWDC presentation about the Vision Pro.
But the fact remains that if Google is going to get taken to task for goofy features while hiding the really fun stuff until later, we should hold Apple to the same standard
